Beginning in the late 18th century, Virginia lost many residents as families moved westward to new states and territories. There was very little foreign immigration to Virginia after 1800.

Beginning in the late 18th century, Virginia lost many residents as families moved westward to new states and territories. There was very little foreign immigration to Virginia after 1800.

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== Overseas Immigration ==

== Overseas Immigration ==

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=== Colonial Ports ===

=== Colonial Ports ===

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Ships commonly docked along riverside plantations on the Elizabeth River, James River, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, and York River.

Ships commonly docked along riverside plantations on the Elizabeth River, James River, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, and York River.

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=== Colonial Records ===

=== Colonial Records ===

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Many Virginians moved to [[Georgia|Georgia]] immediately after the American Revolution.<ref>John Frederick Dorman, "Review of ''Research in Georgia,"'' in ''The Virginia Genealogist,'' Vol. 25, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1981):147. Digital version at [http://www.americanancestors.org/search.aspx?Ca=098&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;Da=285 American Ancestors] ($). {{FHL|33159|item|disp=FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 25 (1981)}}</ref> Barlow published records identifying some of them:

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Many Virginians moved to [[Georgia|Georgia]] immediately after the American Revolution.<ref>John Frederick Dorman, "Review of ''Research in Georgia,"'' in ''The Virginia Genealogist,'' Vol. 25, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1981):147. Digital version at [http://www.americanancestors.org/search.aspx?Ca=098&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;Da=285 American Ancestors] ($). {{FHL|33159|item|disp=FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 25 (1981)}}</ref> Barlow published records identifying some of them:

Revision as of 17:18, 7 July 2012

The original European settlers came in the early 17th century from the midland and southern counties of England.[1] They first settled in Virginia's tidewater (coastal plain). Many colonists had connections to Barbados.[2] Although the first blacks arrived in 1619, large numbers of blacks were imported beginning about 1680. It has been estimated that 75% of white colonial Virginia immigrants arrived in bondage.[3] Small landholders moved westward to the Piedmont, where they were joined by a new wave of English and Scottish immigrants.

In the early 1700s, French Huguenots arrived, followed by German workers imported between 1714 and 1717 to work iron furnaces in the Piedmont area. During the 1730s and 1740s, a large number of settlers of Ulster Scot and German descent moved southward from Pennsylvania down the Allegheny Ridges into the Shenandoah Valley.

Beginning in the late 18th century, Virginia lost many residents as families moved westward to new states and territories. There was very little foreign immigration to Virginia after 1800.

Ships commonly docked along riverside plantations on the Elizabeth River, James River, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, and York River.

Colonial Records

Very few passenger lists exist for immigrants entering colonial Virginia. There are quite a few sources; however, that include immigration information. Most records have been published. The place to start is P. William Filby, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (available online at Ancestry ($)). Available library copies can be located through WorldCat. See also Passenger and immigration lists index. Supplement.

The major port in Virginia was Norfolk, but many settlers arrived at Baltimore, Philadelphia, or other ports and then migrated to Virginia. In the eighteenth century, ships selling indentured servants and transported convicts often docked at ports along the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.

It is often quite a challenge to determine whether or not a Colonial Virginian was an immigrant. Headright grants identify a certain percentage (particularly before 1720), but require special attention to correctly interpret.[7] Colonial sources describing individuals as indentured or convict servants further develop a list. Military records kept about soldiers in the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War (particularly pensions) may identify further overseas births.

McCartney completed a 20-year scholarly study of all persons known to have resided in Colonial Virginia between 1607 and 1634. She published the results in 2007 to celebrate Virginia's 400th anniversary:

Standard, W.G. Some Emigrants to Virginia: Memoranda in Regard to Several Hundred Emigrants to Virginia During the Colonial Period Whose Parentage is Shown or Former Residence Indicated by Authentic Records. Richmond, Va.: The Bell Book & Stationery Company, 1911. Digital versions at Ancestry ($), Google Books, and Internet Archive. Free online surname index and purchase details for 2005 reprint at Mountain Press website.

Headright grants document the importation of settlers into the colony. "Although it was possible to secure land on the headright system throughout the whole of the colonial period in Virginia, after about 1720 few of the land patents were issued on this basis."[8] They are kept at the Library of Virginia. They have been abstracted and digitized:

The Virginia Colonial Records Project at the Library of Virginia can help American trace their European immigrant origins. Scholars visited European archives searching for references to Virginians. Their reports are available online and searchable by name; description: About the Virginia Colonial Records Project. They also microfilmed many of the records they located. The microfilms are held at the Library of Virginia.

Withington, like the Virginia Colonial Records Project, sought out references to Virginians in English archives:

Withington, Lathrop. Virginia Gleanings in England: Abstracts of 17th and 18th-Century English Wills and Administrations Relating to Virginia and Virginians. FHL 975.5 P28w

Records of ethnic groups, including Huguenots, Mennonites, Scots, Germans, and blacks, are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under the subject heading VIRGINIA - MINORITIES. The following contains abstracts and indexes to wills, mentioning about 5,000 immigrants to Virginia:

English Immigrants

In lieu of colonial passenger lists regarding early settlers of Virginia, genealogists must rely on evidence gleaned from a variety of sources to successfully trace immigrant origins.

Scholarly articles published in The American Genealogist, the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, and The Virginia Genealogist illustrate strategies that will help Americans trace their colonial Virginia immigrant origins.

The Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London proved the wills of many residents of Virginia. For access, see Virginia Probate Records. Heraldic visitations list some members of prominent English families who crossed the Atlantic. Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy includes a concise list of visitations available online. Online archive catalogs, such as Access to Archives, can be keyword searched for place names, such as "Virginia" to retrieve manuscripts stored in hundreds of English archives relating to persons and landholdings in this former English colony. These types of records establish links between Virginia residents and England, which can lead researchers back to their specific ancestral English towns, villages, and hamlets.

The multi-volume Calendar of Colonial State Papers Colonial, America, and West Indies (1574-1739), which is available for free online (see discussion in Virginia Public Records), highlights many connections between England and Virginia.

A standard work on early Virginia immigrants, which includes some passenger lists, is now also widely available on the Internet:

Hotten, John Camden. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, with Their Ages, the Localities Where They Formerly Lived in the Mother Country, the Names of the Ships in which They Embarked, and Other Interesting Particulars; from MSS. Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. London: the author, 1874. Digital versions at Ancestry ($); Google Books and Internet Archive; 1983 reprint: FHL Collection 973 W2hot 1983

Brandow published an addendum to Hotten's work:

Brandow, James C. Omitted Chapters from Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality ... and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001. Digital version at Ancestry ($).

Peter Wilson Coldham has published several volumes of English records that identify hundreds of thousands, among other American immigrants, those destined for Virginia. Many English indentured servants completed labor terms in Virginia. Coldham's works are indexed in Filby's Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s (digital version at Ancestry ($)).

The English port of Whitehaven, in northwest England, had extensive trade dealings with Virginia and Maryland during the colonial period. For an excellent study of this trade and the families involved, see:

African Immigrants

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Internet site contains references to 35,000 slave voyages, including over 67,000 Africans aboard slave ships, using name, age, gender, origin, and place of embarkation. The database documents the slave trade between Africa, Europe, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States.

Scottish and Irish Immigrants

Many Scottish merchants established stores where British goods were imported in eighteenth-century Virginia.

Scots-Irish settlement was particularly concentrated in the Shenandoah Valley during the eighteenth-century in places such as Augusta County, Virginia.

David Dobson has dedicated many years to establishing links between Scots and their dispersed Scottish cousins who settled throughout the world. For Virginia connections, see publications by David Dobson.

A helpful book about Scottish Highlanders in America is:

MacLean, J.A.P. An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America Prior to the Peace of 1783 Together with Notices of Highland Regiments and Biographical Sketches. Cleveland, Ohio: The Helman-Taylor Company, 1900. Digital version at Internet Archive.

Colonial Ships

Though they do not include names of passengers, records kept by the Board of Trade and stored at The National Archives (Kew, England), document ships' arrivals and departures from Virginia ports between 1698 and 1774. FamilySearch microfilmed these records. They are useful for learning about the history of ships entering the colony:

If you believe your ancestor served on the crew of an English vessel that docked in Virginia, Rediker's book Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (FHL Book 942 U3re)[11] provides an excellent description of what your ancestor's life at sea would have been like. Records about these people are stored in England at facilities such as the British National Archives. Their website offers research guides, such as Merchant seamen serving up to 1857: further research.

If you believe your ancestor's ship was shipwrecked, Shomette compiled a "Chronological Index to Documented Vessel Losses in the Chesapeake Tidewater (1608-1978)" as an appendix to Shipwrecks on the Chesapeake (FHL Book 975 U3s) that can lead you to further information.[12] Shomette also wrote a book titled Pirates on the Chesapeake: Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay, 1610-1807 (1988) for those who believe they may have pirates in their family tree.

English Voyages

Peter Wilson Coldham compiled a list of convict ships travelling between English and Virginia ports during the eighteenth century. See appendix to:

1783 to Present

The Family History Library and the National Archives have many of the post-1820 passenger lists and indexes for Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other major ports. These are listed in the Family History Library Catalog Locality Search under [STATE], [COUNTY], [CITY] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.

The Family History Library and the National Archives also have incomplete passenger lists for the following ports.

The above lists are included in Copies of Lists of Passengers Arriving at Miscellaneous Ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts . . . (in the Family History Library Catalog Locality Search under UNITED STATES - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION; FHL 830231-FHL 830246. These lists are indexed in Supplemental Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Atlantic and Gulf Coast Ports . . . (in the Family History Library Catalog Locality Search under UNITED STATES - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION - INDEXES; FHL 418161-FHL 418348

During the War of 1812, American officials reported finding a total of 333 British aliens, many of whom had families, living in Virginia. Most British immigrants were settling in the capital, and in towns, and ports at that time. The numbers show that immigration from Great Britain to Virginia had decreased considerably from the high levels reached during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries:[13]

Place

Aliens

Place

Aliens

Richmond

105

Fairfax, Alexandria

1

Petersburg

50

Baltimore

1

Norfolk, Boro

36

Bedford

1

Rockbridge

16

Charles City

1

No place

13

Charlotte

1

Campbell, Lynchburg

11

Cumberland

1

Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg

7

Dinwiddie

1

Wythe

7

Elizabeth City

1

Culpeper

6

Fluvanna

1

Fauquier

6

Grayson

1

Henrico

6

Greenbrier

1

Powhatan

5

Hanover

1

Chesterfield, Manchester

4

Jefferson, Charles Town

1

Stafford, Falmouth

4

Loudoun, Leesburg

1

Botetourt

3

Louisa

1

Chesterfield

3

Madison

1

Norfolk County

3

Middlesex

1

Botetourt, Fincastle

2

Norfolk, Portsmouth

1

Cumberland, Cartersville

2

Northumberland

1

Elizabeth City, Hampton

2

Philadelphia [sic]

1

Goochland

2

Pittsylvania

1

Harrison

2

Prince George

1

Kentucky, Lexington

2

Prince William, Dumfries

1

Lunenburg

2

Southampton

1

Princess Anne

2

Spotsylvania

1

Washington, Abingdon

2

Washington

1

Accomack

1

Westmoreland

1

Albemarle, Charlottesville

1

Wood

1

American Immigration

Many settlers from Maryland and Pennsylvania migrated down into Virginia during the colonial period. The Great Valley Road, which passed through the Shenandoah Valley was a popular route.

Westward Migrants

Free native-born Virginians, alive in 1850, who had left the state, resettled as follows:[14]

State

Persons Born in Virginia

Percentage

Ohio

85,762

22%

Kentucky

54,694

14%

Tennessee

46,631

12%

Indiana

41,819

11%

Missouri

40,777

11%

Illinois

24,697

6%

Alabama

10,387

3%

Mississippi

8,357

2%

Georgia

7,331

2%

Texas

3,580

1%

Louisiana

3,216

1%

Other

60,808

16%

Total

388,059

101%

Many Virginians moved to Georgia immediately after the American Revolution.[15] Barlow published records identifying some of them:

Robertson, Clara Hamlett. Kansas Territorial Settlers of 1860 Who were Born in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina: A Compilation with Historical Annotations and Editorial Comment. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976. FHL 978.1 H2ro; digital version at World Vital Records ($).

British Mercantile Claims identify migrations made by many Virginians during the period 1775 to 1803. The folks listed owed debts to overseas British merchants at the opening of the Revolutionary War and after the War was over, the merchants came to collect their debts, only to find that many of these people had moved. Dorman published these records in The Virginia Genealogist, beginning with Volume 6. Digital version at American Ancestors ($). FHL Book 975.5 B2vg v. 6 (1962).

↑Donald G. Shomette, Maritime Alexandria: The Rise and Fall of an American Entrepôt (2003).

↑John Crump Parker, "Old South Quay in Southampton County: Its Location, Early Ownership, and History," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Apr. 1975):160-172. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

↑These statistics do not account for the large number of Virginians who had resettled and died before the year 1850. See: William O. Lynch, "The Westward Flow of Southern Colonists before 1861," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Aug. 1943):303-327. Digital version at JSTOR ($).